


Yokai of The Desert Forest

by LailabugTheReader



Category: Naruto, Nurarihyon no Mago | Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, M/M, Reincarnation, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:21:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22886224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailabugTheReader/pseuds/LailabugTheReader
Relationships: Gaara/Uzumaki Naruto, Nura Rikuo/Zen
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	1. The Beginning [Rikuo]

I coughed wetly, blood staining my hand. Next to me, I saw Zen, tanned skin flushed.

"It's okay.... Asahisao, take care of everyone for us." My son clasps my hands tightly, tears leaking down from his crimson eyes.

"This way, we'll be at peace, kid." Zen smiles weakly, going into another coughing fit. Kejōro rushes to get something to wipe the blood with. I can feel that we don't have long left. My eyes are so very tired..... At least... At least everyone will be here when I die. I'll see Mom again....

"But I can't lead the clan yet! I haven't mastered my fear! I still need to practice with the Equip, and build my Parade, and please don't leave me! Please...."

"Hisao. It's your time now. We trust you." A tear slips down my cheek. " Good night, Fourth Commander. Get a good spouse, and have at least one kid. Carry on the line... I'm sure Gramps and Dad are proud. I'll see them again now. We'll watch you and wait for you to join-" A brief hacking fit interrupts my rambling. "Us. Don't rush there too quickly. Live a full life. Trust the others, and make friends....."

"Goodbye, kid." His signature crooked smile appears one last time, as I begin to close my eyes. Heavy...... So very heavy......

*****

?

When I open my eyes again, I'm in some small room. It definitely isn't how I'd pictured the afterlife. 

"Zen?" My voice came out very different than his I've come to expect it to. Almost... Childish. Have I reincarnated? No. If I did, I'd be a baby. So what's going on? I sit up and begin to meditate. I go into the part of me that Equip uses. Maybe there will be memories there. When I open my mind-eyes, I see a boy. No older than ten, surely. He has light blond hair and bright blue eyes. He seems to be sleeping. I kneel beside him and shake him awake. The boy groggily gets up, yawning loudly and coughing.

"Is it time for the Academy yet? Who woke me? I was probably just dreaming." He opens his eyes and shuts them again in disbelief. He repeats this a few times more, rubbing them in-between. " Where..... am I? "

"You're in my mind." I step forwards to help him up. " For some reason, I seem to have taken your body. What's your-" As I touch his small hand, I see his memories. Poor child. "Naruto, I'm sorry. My name is Rikuo. Rikuo Nura. I really don't know why or how I'm here, but if I can't leave, I will try to fulfill your goal. It is the least I can do for you."

He looks happy. "Thanks, Mister Nura!" Once he says this, he fades away with a large grin on his face.

I open my eyes in what I now know to be Naru-my apartment. I get out of the bed and look into his drawers, checking for some non-orange clothes. Sure, orange is an okay color, but he wears it all the time! I shudder, but smile as I see a plain hakama almost like one of the ones I wore as a child. 

After dressing, I head out to the Hokage's building. Taking advantage of my new body's abilities, I jump across rooftops until I arrive. Knocking at the door, I hear a bang like someone dropped something and wait until I hear him call. "Come in." Walking inside, I close the door securely behind me. The old Hokage looks rather surprised. " Naruto? I would've thought you'd still be asleep around now. What's wrong? "

Bowing my head respectfully, I reply. "I am not Naruto any more. For some reason, when I died my consciousness was transferred to this body." He looks alarmed and tenses. " Relax. I have no desire to hurt you, only inform you of this. As I said before, I don't know how or why this happened, only that it did. I have the boy's memories and I just say, I'm rather disappointed. It seems that my body is somehow related to the Fourth Hokage, your successor. Were you afraid of him being attacked? Probably. Still, the villagers here hate him and call him some kind of demon fox or demon child. Is he part yokai? Also, what can you tell me about this world that the child didn't know? Please do keep in mind that although this child is young, I am older than you."

"Well, you certainly don't look it. You are correct that I didn't wish for him to be attacked, so I let others know about the Nine-tailed fox sealed inside him to distract them from him looking more and more like Minato everyday. What can I tell you? Probably quite a bit." He motions to the chair. " Here, sit. We'll be here a small while. Well, in this world, people have something called chakra inside them, which is a fusion of mental and physical energy. There are five Great Nations. Earth with the Village Hidden in the Stone, Fire with our Village Hidden in the Leaves, Lightning with their Village Hidden in the Clouds, Water with the Village Hidden in the Mist, and Wind with the Village Hidden in the Sand. Each has a Kage, a shadow. I am the Hokage, Fire Shadow. There are nine tailed beasts. The one-tailed tanuki, two-tailed cat, three-tailed turtle, four-tailed monkey, five-tailed horse, six-tailed slug, seven-tailed insect, eight-tailed octopus, and our nine-tailed fox. Each major village has one, some two. Anyways, you have the home-based fox, the strongest beast. When the Village was attacked, Minato sealed it in you. Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki, was the previous Jinchuriki due to her Uzumaki heritage. That seems about it. Do you mind attempting a jutsu to see if you can use chakra? If you have trouble but feel like you can, check Naruto's memories. " I nod, assimilating the information.

I hold my hands in a Ram seal and search inside myself for my Chakra. I can feel my Fear...... But next to it is a dark power and a pure power. I'm sure the pure one's my chakra, so I tap into it kind of like my Fear. I wonder if I can do yokai things here? Checking the memories, I surround myself with the chakra and fill myself with it, holding the image of my Defense form in my head. Suddenly, I feel myself at my normal height again. What a relief. It was so strange being short again. "Well, I suppose I can. This is what I looked like before I died, by the way."

He raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "And you're older than me? You don't look a day older than twenty, maybe thirty if you really push it."

"How old are you?"

"Sixty-eight. " He says smugly.

"I'm past two-hundred, little boy."

"Are you human?"

"Partially."

He looks a tad irritated. "Then what are you to be over two-hundred and look twenty! I'm seriously jealous here."

I snicker. "Me."

He takes a long breath from his pipe and blows it out slowly. He just looks at me.

"By now, I'm technically a full yokai, having already died. Before my first death, I was three-quarters human." I shudder. "Trust me, you never want to rot half-alive. Anyways, once I died a death that wouldn't affect me if my body changed to a yokai, my yokai blood took over. My father, a half-human, died of a sword to his heart, and since even if his body changed he would still die, he stayed dead. Too bad I didn't know so I could take the sword out of his chest."

" I see. Will you be wanting to become a shinobi or find a way back to your world? "

"I promised the kid I'd become Hokage for him." I get up and stretch. " I'll go to the Academy. " As I head out the door, "By the way, he died of some kind of disease. It seemed similar to the one I died of. In the future, take better care of your people." I tell the old human behind me. Testing something, I disappear in a flash of black mist. My Fear works! 

When I appear again at the Academy, I sense something familiar far away. It feels like........ No, it couldn't be.


	2. Blades of Teaching [Rikuo]

Walking inside, I shake the errant thought out of my head. It's unlikely that we'd both be in the same world, and even if we were, it's huge. I doubt we'd be able to find each other. I open the door to the classroom and sit in Nar- my seat. It's strange, being in school again...

The bell rings and our sensei, Iruka, calls us to order. "Is anyone absent?" With some looking and mumbling, the general consensus was that there wasn't. "Alright, thank you." He looks up, his eyes on me, seeming to be expecting something. I just give him a small smile. He looks a little confused. 

"Anyways, today we'll be learning about the basics of kenjutsu. Follow me outside." Iruka leads us to a training area with wooden swords. " Take a blade and find a space inside a chalk circle other than the red one. Once you have, wait for further instruction." Children rush to grab swords and bump into each other. A few start play-fighting. I get a sword and find a circle away from the others. I already know this. Once everyone is settled down, he goes to a larger circle in the center that was left open. He settled into a basic stance.

"Copy." He swings his blade down, up, and to each side, giving some time after each. He stabs forwards, settling back in his stance. "This is the basic Academy kenjutsu stance. You can make adjustments or learn an entirely new stance. For the most part, each clan has a stance modeled after their taijutsu, so you who have a clan can learn those if you wish." He relaxes his body. " The thing is, not everyone is suited to some things. For instance, for the most part, a Hyuuga will not use a weapon because they have their Gentle Fist. But an Uchiha may use one because the Sharingan helps them pinpoint targets. However, some people aren't suited for what their clans usually do. These people sometimes create amazing new jutsu or become extremely famous. For instance, the Nidaime, Senju Tobirama-sama, was one of the best ever heard of at water jutsu. He was so good that he could call upon the water in desert air. But the Senju are a clan known for their healing abilities and the rare Mokuton Kekkei Genkai. So you see, even if you don't think you're good because you aren't as good as others at things your clan may do, or just your classmates, you do have an amazing talent in something, somewhere. " Just as he finished speaking, the bell rang and the school was out for lunch. "Dismissed!" He calls.

Once most everyone is gone, I go up to him and grab his attention. Silently, I walk to my circle and show him some of my sword-fighting skills. His eyes widen. "Naruto.... You're amazing at this! If you don't mind me asking, why weren't you really talking today? You're usually much more energetic."

"Well, when I woke up, I realized a few things. Iruka-sensei, I'd like to apply for advanced classes and an early graduation. I believe that now, I can do this. If you need proof, ask me to do anything." I tell him a half-truth, because I can't tell everyone the about me not being Naruto.

"Well, you certainly seem different... You are extremely talented at kenjutsu. I suppose, as long as you really apply yourself, you may. I'm going to ask two friends from my own Academy days to help out. Now, go eat you lunch and I'll bring you aside at the beginning of class to meet them." He smiles at me and ruffles my hair. 

It's been a long time since anyone has done that to me. Gramps was probably the last one before he died. Asa never did get to meet him. He takes after Nurarihyon so much. His hair even has a little ponytail at the end like Gramps'. The top part of his hair is a light gold, too. His eyes are like Nurarihyon's honeyed orbs. Really, the only thing he has from me is that his facial markings look like my offensive form ones. Even though only an eighth of his blood is from Gramps, he's only three-eighths human. We couldn't decide on his name, so we combined them. Hisao for long-lived, Asa for healer. Silly, I know. In a way, it was a bit of a nod to my mother. Her father, my grandfather, was named Asa.

As I walk up the steps to the roof, I take my lunch out of my bag. Before I got here, I made a bento like my mother taught me so long ago. I sit over by a tree on the corner of the rooftop and open my lunch. The box is pretty plain, a light brown with a darker design on it. No, that's not what draws everyone to me.

"Wow, your lunch looks amazing!" A blonde says. I think her name was Yamanaka..... Inu?

"Thanks!" I say, trying to keep with how my host would respond for the most part. " I made it myself!"

"Your mom didn't make it for you?" A girl with (How is that possible?) pink hair asks.

"I don't have a mom. I live by myself."

"That must be nice! " A brown haired girl says. "No parents to tell you what to do, free to eat whatever you want, stay up however long you want..."

"Oh.... Uh, yeah. I guess so. " I snap open some chopsticks. "Anyways, I just want to eat now, so bye." The girls wave at me and leave. I look at my food. I made it with an apple design. Their favorite food.... I smile softly and begin to eat.

*****

Once lunch is over, it's time to go back in. As promised, sensei pulls me aside. In an empty classroom next to ours, two men wait. Seeing their vests, they're both Jonin. "Naruto, this is Gekko Hayate and" He pauses, almost imperceptibly. "Hatake Kakashi. I've asked them to take time out of their busy schedules to train you. They're here to decide for themselves what they wish to do. Please keep in mind that once they decide, that's it. Hayate is a kenjutsu specialist and Kakashi had a teammate very similar to you once." I nod, trying not to snort. Iruka leaves the room after he finishes speaking.  
**(A/n Kakashi's last name probably reminds him of his father, so his friends likely avoid using it.) ******

********

"What's funny, kid?" The silver-hair asks.

********

"I know about my father, you know. " His eyes widen and the others look a bit confused. He just be Kakashi.

********

"How?" He asks simply.

********

"Common sense." I smirk. " Anyways, I've been told I'm talented at Kenjutsu. Do you want a demonstration?"

********

"No." The one who must be Hayate replies. " I trust Iruka. We may be different ranks, but we're friends. So, why do you want to graduate early? "

********

"I want to be able to help the village was soon as possible. There's also someone I'd like to look for, and to do that I'd need to be a Genin and capable of going on missions."

********

Kakashi nods. "I see. What would you want to specialize in?"

********

"Well, I'd want to use genjustu and kenjustsu together." I reply.

********

"Good thing Kakashi's good at genjutsu. Iruka said you don't have very good chakra control, though. I'll be happy to help with your kenjustu, however." The brunet says, coughing. 

********

I think for a minute and turn to Kakashi. "Then how about this; teach me a basic genjutsu. If I can do it within an acceptable amount of time, you'll teach me."

********

"Alright." He weaves Serpent-Rat. "Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage Jutsu. "

********

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehe cliffhanger. I'm evil. You'll have to wait and see what his worst fear is!


End file.
